Wordgrove Post & Review

Quoted in the Grove:

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice; In practice, there is.
~Chuck Reid

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’ (I found it!) but ‘That’s funny …’
~Isaac Asimov

It’s a rare person who wants to hear what he doesn’t want to hear.
~Dick Cavett

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Posted from the Grove:
Until they’re able to direct quarks and leptons into performing for stop-motion pictures, the following is the world’s smallest movie. It’s made with atoms

www.youtube.com/madewithatoms

~

Prewritten for Thurs (05/29) 5 pm PT/8 ET is: constellation, fireworks

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@Writers Platform
Glass Table:

~Piffin: Black Nylon Sanctuary
The strategic placement of a buzzing new technology and getting wet under an umbrella

~Stejovis: Various Sonnets  
Example of a word sonnet taken from a link in Various Sonnets

Damien Bailey: VICE OR VIRTUE
From: Foreplay: An Anthology of Word Sonnets

i’ve
encountered
every
vice
and
virtue
out
there
but
none
as
confusing
as 
you

~ReenRen: Ode to My Rainbow
Rainbow love, captivating, ephemeral; precious for its beauty and stellar brevity; a passionate storm and … then she’s gone

~Aluria: A Roll of the Dice
From family archives: they rolled in the aisles in holy fervor, then rolled in the hay with indiscreet ardor; first discovery and a judge without court, then a roll of the dice with the unfortunate score: Heaven 1 (won), 2 for Hell (straight away)

~

Prewritten: Spend a couple minutes with Edward Hopper’s, Nighthawks at the Diner, spin a thread from what you see

http://wordgrove.com/nighthawks.html

~Aluria: The Diner
Writers, denizens of the night in the heart of the city, keep vampire hours; they meet, they talk, they write in silence until first light stirs the city; tired and drained, they collect their sheets of paper and trade them for sheets of linen

~BarTalk: Phillies

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Impromptu: dice, grave

~Piffin: The Wrecking Ball
Subtle reminder that patience with the process gives the fruit of a tree a chance to ripen; a dithering time-sink for some is part of the writerly process for others

~Jessalee: June 23, 1967
A frantic shedding of clothes, a neglect of the hand brake in nature’s hurry for procreation; 9 months later a newborn takes a name from the family story they tell to this day

~Stejovis: Killer Game
Before reading, know that: lorica segmentata is an armored breastplate, that gladius is a short sword, that pilum is a javelin about two meters long, that a sarcina was a Roman legionary’s marching pack, a loculus was his satchel, and that slowly bleeding your life out upside down over some victor’s dice game was a chance you took as a soldier

~BarTalk: haiku

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Quoted in the Grove:

Moments of silence are part of the music.
~Anon

Kindness is in our power even when fondness is not.
~Anon

Men socialize by insulting each other, but they don’t really mean it. Women socialize by complimenting each other, but they don’t mean it either.
~Anon

Never make eye contact while eating a banana.
~Anon

For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.
~Virginia Woolf

~~

Posted from the Grove:

From a poverty of attendees at last week’s Word Game, the issue this week was finding enough seating.  The evening was long on chat (also welcomed new member, ReenRen), but the impromptu exercise slotted in on schedule without a hitch. Beautiful

~

Prewritten for Thurs (05/23) 5 pm PT/8 ET is: Nighthawks at the Diner, a painting by Edward Hopper

Hopper’s Nighthawks… is a classic in American art. The setting is simple, the characters inhabiting the frame are few. They share this time and space but with histories and intentions that are profoundly different. Stories pour out of this painting by their hundreds, poems by their thousands. The assignment for Thurs’ Word Games: View Nighthawks …, and write from the place this painting takes you

http://wordgrove.com/nighthawks.html

~~

@Writers Platform
Glass Table:

~Stejovis: Various Sonnets: 16th century style
Does truth arrive by a knowledge of information, or by intuition; if both but not equal, information may be quantifiably true, but intuition predates numbers in the codex of the mind

~Aluria: The Godparent
When City visits the Bayou on hurricane alley, there is dismay at first in the soggy discomfort, also disdain for the menu and distress at the bugs, until … their happiness here shines thru; these people are happy; a dawning awareness of her godson’s great good fortune, a real life of raw episodes surrounded by kin, water and beauty; a vulnerable paradise where survivors take on life

~Piffin: Mexico
How do you win at love when death is your competition; death and knives cut both ways, but guns and cars are pointed; the open road is an open door, but death is the only door that reconciles love with departed loved ones

~

Prewritten: Croatoan, Indian tribe and neighbor to the Lost Colony of Roanoke. That’s the history, but there’s a mystery of inexplicable disappearances associated with the word. Write about it

~Piffin: Croatoan
Whimsy and wordplay with a beat; music has a go at mystery, its only lack, a chorus and a tune

~BarTalk: Croatoan

~

Impromptu: snack, humidity, godparent (pick two)

~Piffin: haiku
Sticky summer night, in line for an Italian ice

~Jessalee: 051613 snack humidity
Elation! Climbers high! … the world spread below at your feet; no shelter, no fire and a cold mountain rain turning food to mush; elation, climbers high

~ReenRen: Godparent Snack
Missed opportunities to celebrate birthdays may plague others, but not with the one who shares it; with a generation gap between them, it’s the Bridge of  Birthdays they cross to meet for lunch

Favorite line:
As a godparent
one is responsible to
be alive and not dead
if we can find a way to

~Stejovis: real deal
Smeared chocolate and dripping ice cream, humming junebugs by the lake; the sodden summer air takes the cake in MacArthurPark

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Quoted in the Grove:

The historian will tell you what happened. The novelist will tell you what it felt like.
~E L Doctorow

Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader – not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.
~E L Doctorow

There is no longer any such thing as fiction or nonfiction; there’s only narrative.
~E L Doctorow

~~

Posted from the Grove:

This week’s reduced crop of new work on the Prewritten and Impromptu benches, if regrettable, does open a door to other opportunities. Below are links to TED Talks that relate specifically to writers and the creative process. The titles are self explanatory. One speaker was included on both lists, so is listed separately. Ms Gilbert provides context and a splendid introduction to both series

12 Essential TED Talks for Writers
http://www.bestcollegesonline.com/blog/2010/08/17/12-essential-ted-talks-for-writers/

4 Must-See TED Talks On Creativity, Inspiration & Passion
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-mustsee-ted-talks-creativity-inspiration-passion/

Elizabeth Gilbert: Your elusive creative genius
http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

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Prewritten for Thurs (05/16) 5 pm PT/8 ET is:

Roanoke, the Lost Colony. People simply disappeared. A single word was found carved on a post at the site. Croatoan. It was the name of a local tribe

There are two mysteries, really. The manner of their disappearance, and that this word appeared on the lips and final writings of several famously doomed and disappeared people from history. The prompt for this Thurs’ Prewritten: Give a creative turn to the mystery based on the word, Croatoan. Paragraph #4 of the link below provides the most intriguing information on the disappearances connected to this word

http://anilbalan.com/2011/10/17/the-croatoan-mystery/

~~

@Writers Platform
Glass Table:

~Piffin: Coffee Break
There is a danger that lurks in secrets, and some things are best left unseen, unheard, unknown; the urine soaked terror of witnessing the forbidden; crime and horror that cannot be unseen

Prewritten: A train whistles, but there are no tracks nearby

~BarTalk: The Weasel

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Impromptu: A long evening of talk about writing, but no writing was done. Worth every minute of it

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